Implementing Standardized Work

This book, the first in The One-Day Expert series dedicated to Standardized Work, is about operator performance measurement. Implementing Standardized Work: Measuring Operators’ Performance explains how to measure the performance of operators quickly and simply without sacrificing accuracy.

Detailing how to identify the most efficient operators and how to monitor their improvement over time, it describes a method that has been applied with success for years in the automotive industry. Grounded in one of the basic laws of factory physics—mastery of variability—this method can be automated very easily and thereby requires no labor consumption.

In this episode of The One-Day Expert, Thomas, a plant director in an industrial group, is reassigned to another plant that is losing money. Morale in the plant is very low and the staff is pessimistic about the plant’s future and is distrustful of senior management. Thomas’ urgent mission is to turn the plant around. Previous plant managers have tried several initiatives with limited results.

To face these challenges, Thomas has decided to use Standardized Work deployment to achieve quick and visible results while rebuilding a real team. This book recounts these initial steps of the Standardized Work deployment. It explains how to find and apply the best operational method that will lead to cost reductions, better product quality, and increased operator safety. Additional steps will be detailed in forthcoming books in the series.